Therefore Zero Hedge is running the obligatory caption contest with this gem:

The best captions thus far?

• "...and the last nuke is for Florida Gulf Coast University for busting my NCAA bracket."
• "Why would I want billions, when I can have millions? How do you spell 'War'?"
• "For the love of God, where's Rodman?"

• "Anyone notice the iMac on his desk!? Long live Jobs!"
• "...and clam chowder, and a large bowl of chili con carne, and a side order of bacon, with sour cream, and cream-filled doughnuts, ice cream with marshmallow topping, and chocolate syrup, and..."
• "Wasn't he the guy that made that Gangnam Style video?"

• "Dear Un, if you are going to take a shot, aim at the District of Criminals."
• "Hory shit! According to my carcurations, I rost f---ing errything in Cyprus! Damn you, Deeser-broom!!! Damn you straight to herr!!!"
• Is that a Bic pen he is using to plot the overthrow of western civilization?

• "Dear Pen Pal, I was so happy to get your letter. I have just returned home from a trip to threaten the world powers. I am 30 years old and have worked really hard to destabilize the region. It has been very difficult to carry on ever since my father died..."
• "Dear Steve, My dogs and I were working on this new nuke project plan, but every time I try the save on iCloud, I get 'Server not found - check your internet connection'. What is going on? Also what is this yellow cable for? Un"

• "Hmmm... So I can save money if I use FedEx"
• "It took me like three hours to finish the shading on your upper lip. It's probably the best drawing I've ever done."
• "Let's see ... they have three longbowmen to my two horse archers. They get additional strength for city defense. I'm going to need the war elephants."

It’s happening incrementally – the unwinding of the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. We're seeing trading countries strike reciprocal alignments to exchange each others currencies and not deal in the USD. And it’s picking up speed. Not overnight – but the end of the USD’s dominance is coming faster than we’re prepared for as a nation. And the media is largely silent on the topic. Go figure.

Over the weekend, Australia appears to have come to the same conclusion, with the Australian reporting that the land down under is set to say goodbye to the world's "reserve currency" in its trade dealings with the world's biggest marginal economic power, China, and will enable the direct convertibility of the Australian dollar into Chinese yuan, without US Dollar intermediation, in the process "slashing costs for thousands of business" and also confirming speculation that China is fully intent on, little by little, chipping away at the dollar's reserve currency status until one day it no longer is.

China and Brazil have agreed to trade the equivalent of up to $30 billion per year in their own currencies, moving to take almost half of their exchanges out of the dollar zone.

The three-year swap line agreement, signed before the start of a BRICS nations summit in South Africa, marked a step by the two largest economies in the group to change global trade flows long dominated by the US and Europe.

It was suggested as a goal early in the first Obama term when Tim Geithner let it slip (then backed off) that it wouldn’t be a bad thing to happen.

The warmest day of the year so far brings hundreds of mischievous teens to Michigan Avenue... [But] Police are calling it ‘mob action’.

CBS 2 is learning about multiple incidents in at least four different locations along the Magnificent Mile and in the Gold Coast, yielding a slew of arrests.

Things got pretty bad, very quickly with many innocent shoppers and tourists caught in the middle of a very chaotic situation... Hundreds of teens littered Michigan Avenue and State Street near Chicago... Things started to go bad around 6:00 p.m. Saturday, with teens purposely bumping into people, and causing fights among themselves.

... “You had a group of teens, close to maybe 500. They assaulted a Chicago police officer that was on a mounted on a horse and all of a sudden they assaulted a citizen walking the streets, just a normal citizen shopping and enjoying the weather,” said [an eyewitness].

Later that night, a man was attacked around 10:45 p.m. while walking near Chicago and Dearborn. Sources tell us he was jumped and punched in the face by a group of teens. He was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

In a separate incident, a group of woman say they were attacked by a mob of girls on the CTA Red Line. The women reported a robbery once they got off the train at the State and Monroe station. Eleven females were arrested—10 juveniles and one adult—and charged with battery. Two of the teens were charged with strong- armed robbery.

According to commenters at Chicago police blog Second City Cop, not only isn't national media covering the story, even the local media isn't telling the whole story:

TOURISTS BEWARE: You are not getting the whole story. I was coming home from work at 7:30. The savages were randomly attacking people. Go to Woodfield if you want to shop. Chicago is not safe.

You'd think such vicious racially motivated hate crimes would receive wide-spread national media attention, but they don't. As a rule, reporters and prosecutors ignore the racist motivations of black-on-white mob attacks. In news articles like this one the thugs are invariably described only by their age -- "kids" or "teenagers" -- while any mention of their race is studiously omitted, as if it had nothing to do with the crimes.

I don't know where these photos came from (they were emailed to me without attribution), but my guess is they don't do what they're supposed to do. That is, if the intent was to strike fear into the hearts of imperialistic running-dog lackeys otherwise known as Americans.

"So if you hit the asteroid with one of your missiles, it breaks apart like this."

"I'll be damned! It is David Hasselhoff!"

"Hey, schmucks: does the lack of tread-marks anywhere on this field mean what I think it does?"

QOTD: "Same-sex marriage is, by far, the most important issue of our generation - even more important than having others to pay for our free access to birth control. War, terrorism, and taxation are laughable matters compared to the tragedy of two or more men who are in LOVE being unable to commit to each other unless they have a government-issued license. Without a license, how could they demonstrate their LOVE to the rest of the public in front of Chick-Fil-As across the country? It is, after all, their right as human beings." --The People's Cube

Saturday, March 30, 2013

You don't have to be a conspiracy nut to recognize that we live in perilous times.

Europe, with its decades of deficit spending and ill-conceived monetary union, is nearing a final reckoning. The United States has passed the historically significant mark of a 90 percent debt-to-GDP ratio, which means an economic decline is all but certain.

Iran will soon deploy its first nuclear weapons, North Korea is threatening ICBM attacks on the United States itself, Russia resembles the old Soviet Union more and more each day, and the People's Republic of China is engaging in a massive military buildup.

We will get through these things: Americans always do. But the possibilities of economic dislocation, market instability, bank runs, and supply chain disruptions are real. And so the choice is simple: do you take simple precautions for yourself, your family, and your neighborhood? Do you anticipate temporary glitches in the fabric of infrastructure we take for granted? Do you plan ahead?

Or are you a drone?

BadBlue Prep -- http://BadBlue.com/Prep -- is a news site specifically designed to keep you current on the news that matters most. From preparing for a natural disaster, to survival skills, and everything in between, BadBlue Prep gives you the critical information you need to stay a step ahead.

The Obama Administration's Official Alphabet Guide for Learning Government's Role in Your Life

Hi, I'm Omar, the Obama administration's official kid's ambassador. Today I'll be guiding you through some of the many necessary regulations that government imposes on us for our protection -- and we'll learn the alphabet at the same time!

A is for auto. The size, speed, fuel and bumpers of autos must be regulated to protect us from ourselves!

B is for business. Government must levy taxes, regulations, fees, surcharges and paperwork on businesses, lest they take advantage of workers.

C is for cupcakes. Every aspect of child nutrition must be controlled -- because we can't leave it up to the parents!

QOTD: "The grotesque mishandling of Britain's energy policy by politicians of all parties, as they chase their childish chimeras of CO2-induced global warming and windmills, has been arguably the greatest act of political irresponsibility in our history." --London Daily Telegraph

Friday, March 29, 2013

No matter where you stand on the issue, the allegation that a baby surviving a botched abortion can legally be executed is noxious, repellent and -- yes -- evil. Yet this is the position of Planned Parenthood.

Florida legislators considering a bill to require abortionists to provide medical care to an infant who survives an abortion were shocked during a committee hearing this week when a Planned Parenthood official endorsed a right to post-birth abortion.

Alisa LaPolt Snow, the lobbyist representing the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, testified that her organization believes the decision to kill an infant who survives a failed abortion should be left up to the woman seeking an abortion and her abortion doctor.

"So, um, it is just really hard for me to even ask you this question because I’m almost in disbelief," said Rep. Jim Boyd. "If a baby is born on a table as a result of a botched abortion, what would Planned Parenthood want to have happen to that child that is struggling for life?”

"We believe that any decision that's made should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician," said Planned Parenthood lobbyist Snow.

...Rep. Jose Oliva followed up, asking the Planned Parenthood official, "You stated that a baby born alive on a table as a result of a botched abortion that that decision should be left to the doctor and the family. Is that what you’re saying?”

Again, Snow replied, “That decision should be between the patient and the health care provider.”

“I think that at that point the patient would be the child struggling on the table, wouldn’t you agree?” asked Oliva.

"That’s a very good question. I really don’t know how to answer that," Snow said. "I would be glad to have some more conversations with you about this.”

...there is no daylight between her testimony and an advocacy of decriminalizing murder.

If a child brought into the world under such circumstances is unworthy of life via the intentions of the mother, logic dictates that the child would be placed in such limbo indefinitely, until such time as the mother chooses to kill it. Two minutes later, twenty-five years later: if this monstrous woman could shape a society according to her testimony, then the mother would necessarily have a permanent right to slaughter her child.

The search warrants and inventories of items seized during the investigation of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting last December have just been released this morning. As it is essentially “breaking news”, a thorough analysis has not been done. However, there are a few good articles out there listing some interesting facts. Check out these three:

1) Active Shooters almost always carry more than one weapon and will be prepared to fight. The warrants revealed that the shooter was wearing a bullet proof vest. Did he expect the school kids to fight back? Nope. He was preparing for a confrontation with the cops...

2) His mother provided the funds for at least one of the weapons. According to the warrant, they found, "a holiday card containing a check made out to [Scumbag] for the purchase of a firearm, authored by his mother..." If your family member has a known mental illness, please do not give him guns for a Christmas gift!

3) Shooters will obsessively study past active shooting incidents in order to “improve their score”. They want infamy and a high body count. Warrants detail that they found clipped articles about past school shootings in [Scumbag]’s bedroom.

4) Shooters will create evidence detailing future plans. Investigators seized seven journals written by the shooter. Investigators wouldn’t have seized them unless they had relevance to the case. They likely contained his plans for the massacre. Be alert for such evidence. Don’t discount it or trivialize it if found. Report it to school authorities or police.

5) All of the shooting happened in a five-minute period. These things happen quickly! What is the response time for your local police department? In an urban area that is well staffed, it is likely to be 4-6 minutes before an officer will be on scene. You cannot expect the police to protect you. Statistically, the attack will be ending as police arrive. You are on your own!

The NRA was right all along. Only an armed teacher or security guard could have prevented Sandy Hook.

Why expend all of that energy standing in line while waiting to get your government check? Just put your flip-flops in line -- that way you get to continue sitting on your butt and playing games on your free Obamaphone.

The bedrock of Western Civilization is the family unit. That is, a man and a woman together forming a bond for the purposes of procreating and raising a family. The pairing of a man and a woman is the only way that the human species can perpetuate itself (various modern biotech and medical experimentation notwithstanding). And the notion that the law should provide formal recognition of this pairing is a concept that is centuries, if not millenia, old.

To insist that legal constructs recognize other types of unions -- based upon behavioral preference, religious belief, or genetic predisposition -- serves only to diminish the family unit. Once lawful status has been granted to same-sex marriage, where does this "right" end? Would polygamists someday lobby for their "civil rights"? Couples engaging in incestuous relationships? Perhaps progressives can outline for us the contours and limits on this new "right" as it pertains to marriage and the law.

I can hear the critics now. "But, Doug," they might say, "That's ridiculous. You're conflating same-sex marriage with all sorts of other types of unions that no civilized society could endorse."

Perhaps so. But the state of California, just four years ago, voted overwhelmingly to reject same-sex marriage. Many observers say that it would pass today. In other words, societies morph. They change. But still they must operate under their existing legal frameworks.

Our framework, tattered though it may be by political infidelity, had its genesis in a moral certitude codified with the motto, "In God We Trust", which has appeared on United States coinage since the Civil War. To reject that framework is to reject the very principles that created our nation. The religious underpinnings of this nation's founding are indisputable. And those same Judeo-Christian principles have overwhelmingly refused to sanctify same-sex marriage.

Furthermore, to reject the legal protections offered only to the heterosexual family is to embrace collectivism. Simply put, arbitrary collections of individuals could claim to represent a family unit and demand such protections and benefits. Is this healthy for the civil society? Does it open the door to an ultimately destructive form of collectivism (e.g., "It takes a village")?

And for those who make the tangential claim that same-sex spouses deserve the health insurance benefits and other perquisites afforded their heterosexual counterparts, I argue simply that the federal government is responsible for the vagaries and distortions of our current health care system, not our concept of marriage. Every intrusive step taken by the government -- from employer-based coverage to Medicare's price controls -- has served only to make health insurance more expensive and treatment harder to find. In other words, just because the federal government broke the health insurance system doesn't mean that it can similarly deconstruct the family unit.

It truly is a case of "In God We Trust" versus "It Takes a Village". Which do you choose?

QOTD: "It is saddening to see the president today, once again, try to take advantage of this tragic murder to promote an agenda that will do nothing to stop violent crime, but will undermine the constitutional rights of all law-abiding Americans. I am committed to working with Sens. Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Marco Rubio, and Jim Inhofe — and I hope many other colleagues — to use any procedural means necessary to protect those fundamental rights.

In any conversation about how to prevent future tragedies such as Sandy Hook, our focus should be on stopping criminals from obtaining guns. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration has failed to make this a priority — in 2010, out of more than 15,700 fugitives and felons who tried to illegally purchase a firearm, the Obama Justice Department prosecuted only 44. That is unacceptable." --Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)

Thursday, March 28, 2013

As the "Gang of Eight" secretly negotiates some sort of grand, "comprehensive immigration reform" bill -- in conjunction with La Raza and the government of Mexico -- let's step back for a moment and consider the context:

• The union representing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been shut out of "negotiations"

• All negotiations are occurring behind closed doors -- in smoke-filled rooms, one would presume -- without any of the traditional legislative process that would permit the public (or most Senators, for that matter) to read and debate the bill

• In back-to-back interviews on Spanish language television, President Obama said that he is "confident that we can get it done" ("it" meaning Amnesty and open borders, one could surmise).

But let's drop back even further. Let's remember some key promises.

Do you recall all of the president's promises regarding Obamacare? How health care premiums would drop by an average of $2,500 a family? How if you liked your health care plan you could keep it? Remember all of the endless, Chavez-like speeches?

When it comes to the Stimulus, Cash-for-Clunkers, Dodd-Frank, Obamacare and every other exercise in central planning, this president and the Democrat Party in general have a record only the 1962 Mets could love.

1. Government allocates capital better than the private sector, and should use interest rates, exchange rates, price fixing, price controls or whatever artifice it deems fit to ensure that capital goes to where it is properly directed.

2.. The alpha and omega of the central bank’s proper role is to finance government spending.

3.. Money belongs to the government, as we have seen properly demonstrated this week in Cyprus.

4.. Property rights, the antediluvian obsession of the market fundamentalists, have been subject to a doctrinal revision “the template” as also shown this week in the eastern Mediterranean.

5.. As a result of this new paradigm, asset prices must rise for the foreseeable future so long as Heli I decrees that the money printers keep printing. How can asset prices fall while the US central bank is printing more than $80bn a month? Even the unreformed Bundesbankers will surely grasp that if the European Central Bank did the same thing, the euro's problems would disappear overnight and prosperity would swiftly return to southern Europe, (Really, Germans should not be allowed into politics until they have had a primer indoctrination at either Cambridge or Princeton.)

6.. More money creates more wealth, and more wealth, especially in real estate, creates more jobs—evidence to the contrary in Spain only represents a small setback on this road to happiness. As we all know, a rise in real estate prices leads to a massive increase in productivity, a prerequisite for an increase in the standard of living.

7.. Services or goods provided to the population by the government, borrowing money from the central bank to pay the fellows who produce the goods that nobody needs with money that does not exist, will add tremendously to the GDP. This is a sure sign that the right policy is being pursued.

8.. These goods and services anyway have a higher moral value than the ones produced in the private sector. One should simply compare the "social usefulness" (a favorite notion of Lenin and Stalin) of a nurse versus a hedge fund manager to be convinced. I rest my case.

So from now on, I will buy what the US, UK, French, Spanish, or for that matter Greek governments and central banks tell me to buy. I cannot afford to offend the new clergy. As a market “intellectual” the risks to my social standing, not to mention career prospects, are too high. One day if I keep my nose clean and my thoughts pure, I may just be admitted to the College of Cardinals.

Obamavote: Health care application registers voters too

The 61-page online Obamacare draft application for health care includes asking if the applicant wants to register to vote, raising the specter that pro-Obama groups being tapped to help Americans sign up for the program will also steer them to register with the Democratic Party.

On page 59, after numerous questions about the applicant's identity and qualification for Obamacare, comes the question: "Would you like to register to vote?" The placement of the question could lead some to believe they have to register to vote to get health care.

In the introduction of the document, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services declare: "This document -- the 'questionnaire' -- represents each possible item that may need to be asked for successful eligibility determinations."

...What does HHS plan to do with all the information it collects on each applicant, and will pro-Obama groups like AARP and Families USA -- which might be tapped as "navigators" to sign people up to Obamacare -- steer them to register as Democrats...

...He added that the Affordable Care Act does not let HHS probe into an applicant's choice to vote. What's more, he said the Paperwork Reduction Act requires that federal agencies seek only information needed to do their job.

This is the kind of thing you see in Banana Republics. It's the kind of thing in which tinpot dictators engage.

To paraphrase Dr. Levin, we no longer live in a Constitutional Republic. We are living in a society so removed from our history, traditions and laws, that our nation's founders wouldn't recognize it. Not because of modern conveniences or the luxuries their creation facilitated, but because of our politicians' infidelity to the Constitution, whether because of greed, malevolence or Utopianism.

QOTD: "When you are an adult applying for disability you have to prove you cannot function in a "work-like setting." When you are a kid, a disability can be anything that prevents you from progressing in school.

Jahleel's mom wants him to do well in school. But her livelihood depends on Jahleel struggling in school. This tension only increases as kids get older. One mother told me her teenage son wanted to work, but she didn't want him to get a job because if he did, the family would lose its disability check.

Kids should be encouraged to go to school. Kids should want to do well in school. Parents should want their kids to do well in school. Kids should be confident their parents can provide for them regardless of how they do in school. Kids should become more and more independent as they grow older and hopefully be able to support themselves at around age 18.

The disability program stands in opposition to every one of these aims." --Chana Joffe-Walt

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

• Napolitano Expects Fees to Cover Immigration Reforms: "[The DHS head] said the costs of some of the key reforms backed by the administration would not be borne by taxpayers, but by the immigrants who opt to pursue any new pathway to citizenship enacted into law..."

• Most Illegal Immigrant Families Collect Welfare: "Census Bureau data reveals that most U.S. families headed by illegal immigrants use taxpayer-funded welfare programs [and even] before the recession, immigrant households with children used welfare programs at consistently higher rates than natives."

As if to highlight this egregious and criminal behavior, an illegal alien climbed an 18-foot fence right in front of the nitwit "Gang of Schmucks" (which is the phrase they prefer, I hear) who happened to be visiting.

EARLY in the year 1789 the French nation found itself in deep financial embarrassment: there was a heavy debt and a serious deficit...

...It was urged, then, that the issue of four hundred millions of paper, (not in the shape of interest-bearing bonds, as had at first been proposed, but in notes small as well as large), would give the treasury something to pay out immediately, and relieve the national necessities; that, having been put into circulation, this paper money would stimulate business; that it would give to all capitalists, large or small, the means for buying from the nation the ecclesiastical real estate, and that from the proceeds of this real estate the nation would pay its debts and also obtain new funds for new necessities: never was theory more seductive both to financiers and statesmen.

It would be a great mistake to suppose that the statesmen of France, or the French people, were ignorant of the dangers in issuing irredeemable paper money; No matter how skillfully the bright side of such a currency was exhibited, all thoughtful men in France remembered its dark side. They knew too well, from that ruinous experience, seventy years before... the difficulties and dangers of a currency not well based and controlled.

They had then learned how easy it is to issue it; how difficult it is to check its overissue; how seductively it leads to the absorption of the means of the workingmen and men of small fortunes; how heavily it falls on all those living on fixed incomes, salaries or wages; how securely it creates on the ruins of the prosperity of all men of meagre means a class of debauched speculators, the most injurious class that a nation can harbor,—more injurious, indeed, than professional criminals whom the law recognizes and can throttle; how it stimulates overproduction at first and leaves every industry flaccid afterward; how it breaks down thrift and develops political and social immorality.

All this France had been thoroughly taught by experience. Many then living had felt the result of such an experiment—the issues of paper money... and there were then sitting in the National Assembly of France many who owed the poverty of their families to those issues of paper. Hardly a man in the country who had not heard those who issued it cursed as the authors of the most frightful catastrophe France had then experienced...

Almost 50 years ago, when the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed, the national out-of-wedlock birthrate was 7%. Today it is over 40%. According to the CDC, the out-of-wedlock birthrate for white children was just 2% in the 1960s. Today it is 30%. Among black children, the out-of-wedlock birthrate has skyrocketed from 20% in the 1960s to a heartbreaking 72% today. The Hispanic out-of-wedlock rate, which has been measured for a much shorter period, was below 40% in 1990 and stands at more than 50% as of the 2010 census.

When President Obama tried to speak to this crippling dynamic in 2008, he was basically told to shut up by Rev. Jesse Jackson. The Chicago-based activist said: "Barack was talking down to black people," then he added a vulgar threat about what he wanted to do in response. The moment revealed the high cost of speaking honestly about social breakdown in black America.

One of these days, Williams may even admit that we lost the "War on Poverty."

"For people like me, on the other hand, the economy is a social system, created by and for people. Money is a social contrivance and convenience that makes this social system work better — and should be adjusted, both in quantity and in characteristics, whenever there is compelling evidence that this would lead to better outcomes." --Paul Krugman

Need one say more?

The characteristics of fiat money is a social contrivance.

Creating money from thin air makes the system work better if there's evidence this would lead to better outcomes?

As in France before Napoleon, when society collapsed?

As in Germany before Hitler, when society collapsed?

As in Zimbabwe before Mugabe, when society collapsed?

Krugman's resume includes Enron, advocating for the housing bubble before the mortgage meltdown, and the historically disastrous money-printing exercise called "Quantitative Easing".

Krugman is a mastermind, a tinkerer, a Utopian. He refuses to learn from history. He believes he and the rest of the central planners can better orchestrate society than all of mankind. But he will soon learn a very painful lesson in real world economics.

QOTD: "We’ve got $1 trillion annual deficits locked in for the next decade. We’ve got total credit market debt at 350% of GDP. We’ve got true unemployment exceeding 20%. We’ve had declining real wages for thirty years and no change in that trend. We’ve got an aging, savings poor, debt rich, obese, materialistic, iGadget distracted, proudly ignorant, delusional populace that prefer lies to truth and fantasy to reality. We’ve got 20% of households on food stamps. We’ve got food pantries, thrift stores and payday loan companies doing a booming business. We’ve got millions of people occupying underwater McMansions in picturesque suburban paradises that can’t make their mortgage payments or pay their utility bills, awaiting their imminent eviction notice from one of the Wall Street banks that created this societal catastrophe.

We’ve got a government further enslaving the middle class in student loan debt with the false hope of new jobs that aren’t being created. We’ve got a shadowy unaccountable organization, owned and controlled by the biggest banks in the world, that has run a Ponzi scheme called a fractional reserve lending system for 100 years, and inflated away 96% of the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar.

We’ve got a self-proclaimed Ivy League academic expert on the Great Depression (created by the Federal Reserve) who has tripled the Federal Reserve balance sheet on his way to quadrupling it by year end, who has promised QE to eternity with the sole purpose of enriching his benefactors while impoverishing senior citizens and the middle class. He will ultimately be credited in history books as the creator of the Greater Depression that destroyed the worldwide financial system and resulted in death, destruction, chaos, starvation, mayhem and ultimately war on a grand scale. But in the meantime, he serves the purposes of the financial ruling class as a useful idiot and will continue to spew gibberish and propaganda to obscure their true agenda." --Jim Quinn